some of you may know that I'm completing a walk in gun safe room... so, I've been looking at ways of displaying some of my collection on the wall...

I designed my own rifle racks, & that design seems to work pretty well for revolvers with at least 4" barrels... however it does not work well with snubbies or any semi auto short of full sized guns...

part of my collection includes Czech rifles & pistols, that my FIL had collected before he died, a good portion of this collection are early service autos in 32 & 380... they don't work well in my existing racks...

so I was looking at building shelves, & using some sort of pistol holder & putting 2 or 3 on a shelf... seen the kind that a wood block replaces the magazine, & wire ones that lay the gun at an angle, as well as the clear acrylic ones... part of the problem, is all these guns vary from 25 auto to 9mm, so one stand won't fit all...

while looking for ideas, I ran across a display stand, that for lack of a better description, looks like an old TV antenna with a center vertical piece of metal, with several horizontal rods, which slip into the barrel, to hang the guns...

I'm thinking about building my own, to match my others which use matching wood ( to my paneling ) I use a 2 X 4 finished with radiused edges for verticals with pegs to hold the long guns, thinking about using the same wood boards, but drilling horizintal holes for "rods"...

sorry this was so long before actually getting to the question...

thoughts on type of metal for the rods ??? steel / stainless steel would likely wear on the barrel, if slid in & out many times ( my other semi's, which may get shot more often than the antiques, will likely end up on a similar disply rack )... so I thought a softer metal... with aluminum, I could end up with galvanic corrosion over time... so was thinking brass...

thoughts or suggestions ???

a pic of the racks I built for the rifles & revolvers... ( I'd like something that looks like it matches these...

thanks for the comments... I have a thread in gear & Acc. maybe burried by now... I thought of the rubber stuff, but am worried about long term exposure to gun oils & or solvents might leave a sticky goo in the barrel.... my thoughts are something softer than steel, but that won't come apart like aluminum could... maybe copper rods ???

ooooh... maybe some old pushrods with solvent resistant heat shrink ??? wouldn't work for the 25's... maybe not the 32's with the added thickness from the heat shrink, but should work for the 380's & 9's

Galvanic corrosion between steel and brass is not an issue since there is no electrolyte present. Personally I would opt for the steel rod with heat shrink and a vinyl cap on the end. The vinyl is solvent resistant enough and could easily be replaced if necessary.

I would google the heat shrink and find some that is solvent resistant. Really the heat shrink isn't going to be immersed in the solvent and the possibility of it attacking the heat shrink or vinyl caps is very very minimal.

Typically what occurs with galvanic corrosion is one metal is a sacrificial anode. For example on ships that are in saltwater enviornments. The steel hull is what is supposed to be protected, so sacrificial anodes made from zinc are attached to the hull. The zinc, in the presence of an electrolyte (sea water), corrodes and protects the steel. Galvanic corrosion explained HERE.

I've seen a setup for this using a metal tube or pin that will fit into the barrel covered with clear aquarium tubing or white Tyvek or Teflon laboratory tubing.
These kinds of plastics won't harm the bore and won't be affected by lubricants, especially the Tyvek or Teflon lab tubing.

The dip plastic is a good idea, and I have used rubber (surgical) tubing both on barrel rods and on pegboard hooks. I wouldn't use anything that replaces the magazine, for the simple reason that the magazine might become lost if it is removed from the gun.

I would just stay with the peg-board and dowel rod concepts ....and for shorter or smaller handguns ...put trigger area over one rod ...and have a pair of dowel rods - one above the barrel & one below - so it will rest in between - so the rod captures the front end of the gun.

Some may rest on top dowel ...some on lower dowel ...maybe angle the nose of the gun a little up or down - depending on the look you want - and where the specific gun balances.

In my room, I milled 30-06 bases@ 30 degrees & drilled out the primer pockets so i could run a drywall screw through. Then i glued in 30 cal bullets. I started with caliber - specific hand gun rounds - 38 cases for 38's, 357 for 357's ect. They're kinda short, so I settled on 45 colt cases with an angled shim. The guns only touch brass that way and I've had no problems so far. I have some displays on rolling racks, and the angled cases really hold the guns tight.

so right now I'm leaning towards .025 steel rod, with chem resistant heat shrink over the top...

if you look at the pic I posted, I'll use the same 2 X 4 design, but drill the holes in both sides, rather than the front, you can't tell the holes are at 10* on my current design, but, I think I'll drill the side holes at 10* also ( since the milling machine is still set up for 10* ) & that will give the guns a muzzle angled down display, on both sides of the board, & insure they stay put...

I had intended to do my Automags on the rack pictured, but since they are both scoped & unscoped, I couldn't get a nice looking display with my other design, so I'll be using this new design for the Automags, only just putting them all on one side of the board... I'll have to go to .017 or so rod, to hold the 22 caliber Automag 2, but the others should be fine with the same .025...

... wondering if I'll need to go to a hardened steel for the 22, so it won't droop ??? it's the lightest of the Automags, with the open slide, but is still a long barrel, so it'll have some leverage on the rod...

stopped by my steel supplier buddy last night, got 2 samples 3/16" & 1/4" cold rolled steel rod ( the cold rolled is much harder to bend than hot rolled ) I got 6" of each, & took some blue ( because that's my accent color in my room ) heat shrink tube, ( you won't see the heat shrink, when all the guns are in place, the muzzle should go right up to the wood ) & both diameters should work well... if I drill my holes in the wood around 2" deep, it's getting plenty of strength, & allows 4" of rod for insertion into the barrels... everything I'm hanging in this group has at least a 4" barrel, I could use the same arrangement with a shorter rod, for the lil 25 acps, when I get to that point...

... if I like this style as much as I think I will, I may take the revolvers in the pic I posted off that rack, & replace it with this new style ( those can have the boards moved to a new area, & spread out for use on more rifles, so i won't have anything extra in them ) BTW... the space under the top 2 pairs in that pic gets filled this Friday with a pair of new Vaqueros in 357 magnum

wood could hold moisture ( though the room is humidity controlled... on my other racks, the wood is not contained within the barrel ) ... & I'm just not sold on the plastics... for example, my Automag 4 with an 8" extended barrel, & grip scope mount, & a good quality burris scope, is pretty heavy, & could put a fair amount of leverage on the rod... even if the plastics could hold the weight & leverage, I'd be concerned over time, it could warp, & if I were not paying attention, warp enough to drop the pistol off the wall...

why not plastic coated steel ??? get the rigidity of cold rolled steel, with the benifits of the plastic on the surface... the heat shrink tube is by design very durable, & thin, with the chem resistant type, seems like the perfect coating...

I would use plastic extruded rod. I would stay away from acrylic as it will be easily attacked by solvents / chemicals. I would use either nylon as it is very chemically resistant and readily available. You can use an unfilled nylon or if you want a material with higher tensile you can use a glass filled nylon. It is available in different diameters and it can easily be machined down to whatever diameter you desire. You can also radius or chamfer the end as desired. McMaster Carr would have it in stock.

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